"Prostitution. Bribery. Blackmail. Thuggery. Hypocrisy. 

"Those were just some of the incendiary words thrown around the U.S. Senate last week, and that doesn’t count what people said in private. 

"The Senate may still have a reputation as a genteel club, but lawmakers seemed to abandon rules of decorum completely last week in arguments about whether Congress should be treated like the rest of the country when it comes to ObamaCare. ...   

"A new poll taken for Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative group, found that 92 percent of voters think Congress shouldn’t be exempted from the insurance provisions of ObamaCare. Most voters blame both parties equally for the exemption, which means Republicans will also be hurt politically if it stands. 'This is an issue with almost unprecedented intensity,' IWV president Heather Higgins told me."

"For its stunning blend of recklessness, fecklessness, callousness, and shamelessness, Benghazi overcomes steep competition to remain the worst of the Obama administration’s collection of scandals. The American people deserve to know what happened and why."

"My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust."

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. …  
 
"Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.  … 
 
"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”

"A mere three weeks remain before the ObamaCare exchanges open for business. The likely result will be the closing doors on Main Street, as shopkeepers and entrepreneurs shut down, unable to make ends meet. It’s clear that the wounded economy can’t cope with the exploding costs ahead.  ... 

"In the past month alone, 312,000 Americans abandoned the search for a job, as labor force participation, already at levels not seen since the Carter administration, dropped another notch. This can only grow worse with ObamaCare telling employers and employees to work less — or not at all. 

"A vibrant economy is the reward of hard work by a lot of Americans, and the government should encourage productivity, not penalize it. ObamaCare is a prescription for a shrinking economy, and the nation won’t recover from stagnation as long as it remains the law. In the weeks ahead, the House will get one last chance to prevent the train wreck. The House must stand firm and refuse to fund the president’s health care takeover."

"In an astonishing display of either ignorance or brazenness, the White House will mark the first anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist attack this Wednesday by sending National Security Adviser Susan Rice to Capitol Hill to argue the administration’s case for military force in Syria. Rice infamously delivered false talking points on national television, blaming the Benghazi attacks on a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islam YouTube video. Sending Rice to Congress to brief members on Syria is like sending Typhoid Mary to lecture on public health. Her credibility is, to use a diplomatic term, limited."

"What should Congress do? ... 

"Unless Obama can show the country that his don’t-mock-me airstrike is, in fact, part of a serious strategy for altering the trajectory of the Syrian war, Congress should vote no."

"Grab a chair: Congress is about to get as fascinating and powerful as it gets. 

"In the next two months, the most unpopular institution in America will decide the fates of a president’s power, a military strike, defense contracts, the budget, health-care implementation, the Federal Reserve chairmanship, illegal immigrants, and all of us who would be hit by a debt default. 

"It will be bitter, ugly, extremely high stakes and in every case wildly unpredictable. 'In 33 years, we’ve never come back from summer break with the number of very critical, important issues that we’re going to confront over the next 90 to 120 days,' House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told us. 'It’s an amazing time.'"

"The grim reality is that key people in positions to shape our foreign policy during the Obama administration -- the President, the Vice President, two Secretaries of State, and the current Secretary of Defense -- all have a track record of grossly misconceiving the issues, our enemies and our national interest. 

"This is the administration that is now asking for a blank check from Congress to take unspecified military action to achieve unspecified goals."

"The president of the United States is preparing in advance to shift the blame if his strike on Syria proves to be unpopular and ineffective. He’s furious about the box he’s placed himself in, he hates the ridicule he’s (rightly) incurring, but he doesn’t see any way out. 

"What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing.  Remember: the president doesn’t believe he needs congressional authorization to act. He’s ignored it before. He wants it now. For reasons of political survival. To put it another way: He wants the fingerprints of others on the failure in Syria.  

"Rarely has an American president joined so much cynicism with so much ineptitude."